


Five Bonds Honda Tadakatsu Formed (and One He Already Had)

by hellscabanaboy



Category: Sengoku Basara
Genre: Comedy, Fully functional and anatomically correct, Gundam does Hi-no-moto, Multi, bonds!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 03:56:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1968027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellscabanaboy/pseuds/hellscabanaboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The strongest warrior of the era has unexpected talents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Bonds Honda Tadakatsu Formed (and One He Already Had)

“I’m honored that you have chosen to visit us in Echigo, Honda-dono,” says the War God, kneeling smoothly on the tatami before me. “Please, allow Kasuga to serve you some tea.”

Always the gracious host, he holds audience with me in a room more than large enough to allow me to kneel comfortably across from him. The little kunoichi places a tray before me, her eyes darting suspiciously between me and Uesugi. Even once she leaves, I can still feel her presence in the corner of my consciousness. Some men might have minded, I suppose, given the nature of my mission, but I can hardly fault her for such dedication to her lord.

“I have already conveyed my response to the Tokugawa’s request for an alliance,” says Uesugi. “I will tell you now, I have no intention of changing that. But unless I mistake myself, you’ve come on your own behalf as well.”

I incline my head to him in answer. Still he holds my gaze steadily, a question in his eyes, so I elaborate, as delicately as I am capable. Even for me, it’s difficult to broach such a topic with a man as renowned as the War God. But he listens graciously to my fumbling attempts, and from his cool serenity I find the courage to make myself known with such words as I possess. For this, as much as anything, I will be grateful to him.

“I see,” he says, rising soundlessly to his feet. “A bond, is it? Very well. I would be pleased to meet you in battle, Honda-dono.”

With a quick clank of machinery, I start to tell him he must have misunderstood - it is a problem many people have with me, at times. But the smile on his face is absolutely knowing, and though he falls into a battle stance it’s not his sword that he reaches for. And it’s then that I realize just what sort of bond Uesugi Kenshin prizes, and what an honor he has bestowed upon me. I only hope that my spear is sharp enough for the endeavor.

The still that lies over Echigo is broken by the crack of thunder. The pond outside the room breaks into ripples, then into waves. And by the time -- she sits above me, the point of her sword ready to bore into my chestplates, I truly know what it means to form a bond with the God of War.

***

“This isn’t about Tokugawa, you understand!? I’m not interested in what men like him want from me.”

Naotora has already made the protest several times, as though she imagines that were she not clear I might produce Lord Takechiyo from the air to seal his own bond. But nevertheless, she certainly has no difficulty showing interest in the desires of one man, and I can’t resist pointing out the irony.

I would have liked to flatter myself that the harshness in her tone and the hot flush spreading across her cheeks could be attributed to my own ministrations. In truth, I must assume she is merely embarrassed. “Y-you’re different.”

Even I can’t quite conceal the amusement in my tone when I ask for clarification, and she turns her face aside with her eyes narrowed. “Well, you’re strong,” she says, “but _gentle_ , Honda. Not like those men who trample over the needs of a maiden...mmh, those sweaty, boorish...ah, _animals_ who drag us into their fights, Honda, Honda…”

For a moment she had seemed so hesitant that I drew back, as any conscientious samurai might. But that only had her squirming in my arms, the fabric of her leggings chafing against my plating so hard that I thought it might fray. I reach for their ties with an inquisitive sound - after all, I myself am just as much a soldier. I have no wish to intrude, if that arouses her disgust.

But she only flushes still harder, spreading down her chest until her very skin is hot to the touch, and wiggles free from them with her eyes squeezed shut. I suppose I have to be flattered that as proud a warrior as she would make an exception for me, as nonsensical as it seems; if what she wants is a gentleman, it would be my honor as well as my duty to provide.

“One day,” she continues as I brush my hand against her skin. “One day I’ll face them in battle. The Takeda, and all those men who think the world is there for the taking, ah, who disregard...disregard the strength of women! They will feel my sword - the, ah, the sword of my passion, harder and harder, ahhh...

The cords stand out in her finely muscled arms as she grips my wrist in fingers that scarcely reach halfway around its width. I hesitate a moment, wondering if I’ve offended her, but instead she pulls me towards her with a strength that, I’m ashamed to say, surprises even me.

“Be a man, Honda,” she says, her voice low and unsteady with desire, “and do what a lady needs.”

What comes next leaves no room for gentleness in the least.

***

I stop in Osaka as I make my way south, to ensure that Lord Takechiyo is settling in as expected. And of course, to take care of one other affair.

“What a pair,” Otani grates out. Even from him, the sarcasm sounds forced. “‘The greatest warrior of the age,’ is it? What reason could such a man possibly have to involve himself with me?”

It’s a strange juxtaposition, that much is true. He sits shriveled and hidden behind his bandages, making him seem as small and frail as my plating makes me great, and when I reach for them he shudders and turns away even as he invites me in past the layers of curtains and screens to the cramped, cloying air of his room. But we are alike, he and I - at least here in Osaka castle, looking towards our respective charges and only then to the nation that, for better or worse, lies at their feet.

When I tell him this he freezes, the sardonic smile still on his lips.

“I suppose you mean me to be honored.” He’s peeled away enough of the bandages to let his cracked skin show, and that he displays as aggressively as the Lady Kyougoku had once attempted to win me with her assets. I am no more swayed now than I had been then. “What generosity, that you would deign to say so in the face - in the very face, o great one - of all evidence to the contrary?”

It seems a bit narrow-minded, for a man noted for his wisdom. I could not hope to match him in cunning, or in what power of his own he had learned to wield; as well to say that I should be honored that he has allowed me in.

He narrows his eyes. “Such magnanimity.”

I ignore his attempts at irony as well, concentrate instead on his hands slipping between the cracks of my chest plates. Ordinarily, I might have moved him away - it’s a greater physical intimacy than I prefer to take lightly, even with a bond I hold in esteem. But under the circumstances, it hardly seems inappropriate.

“Are you saying then that you’re doing this for little Takechiyo’s sake? My very own view of the great one’s renowned dedication?”

No, not in the slightest. And yes, of course, always, always yes, as I march and fight and my gears turn with lord Takechiyo at their center, and with luck he might one day follow in the footsteps of every bond I now make. But did I choose Otani Yoshitsugu as my partner with the face of my young lord in my thoughts? Hardly.

Then as much so, I suppose, as he responds for the sake of young Sakichi.

A shadow crosses his face at the reply. “Then I must have no cause for concern. Very well done, great one.” He nearly spits the words, but his hands don’t let up inside of me, and the reactions he elicits there are, I hope, far more pleasing to us both.

***

“I’ve been wanting to get a crack at you for a long time,” the pirate lord purrs.

That much I’ve known for some time - not that it isn’t still flattering to hear. Chosokabe Motochika’s association with my lord - and therefore with me - goes several years back, to a time when I was not so free with my affections as I now am. It’s truly refreshing, to experience at length the conclusion to so long an affair.

And it seems that Chosokabe has given the matter of our union a great deal of thought over the intervening years.

“Oh, I’ve just picked these up here and there,” he says, the contents of his toy chest spilling from his arms and across the abandoned hammock. “I mostly just use ‘em on their own, you know, or sometimes with a fucking machine - I’m still right proud of coming up with that one, if you’re ever, you know, interested in a ride. But nothing like what _you’ve_ got, I can see that much already.”

Bemused, I pick up one of the toys. It’s a wooden phallus, perhaps some two inches thick, carefully sanded smooth to show the small ridges carved along its length. At its base is an apparatus, not unlike those I’m familiar with but different in its detail. It looks as though it’s been repaired or replaced several times, in keeping with Chosokabe’s penchant for continual improvement.

“Oh, that’s a fine one,” he says. “But uh, it doesn’t really seem like you, if you take my meaning. Here--” He dives back into the pile of toys with relish. The one he tosses me is nearly as thick as the first, but longer, with slick, unyielding chrome plating. I can see why he would want to show it off. “--try this one on for size.”

I have to admit I enjoy the placity of the simple wooden device. But with a partner so eager, I’m more than pleased to try each in its turn. And though I had not realized he would wish to receive as much as he self-evidently does to give, I make sure to leave his curiosity well satisfied.

When we’ve finished - and finished again; the pirate’s stamina is remarkable, although my own is surely a match for any man’s - he cleans each toy carefully, making sure its parts remain well oiled. I watch as he packs them away in the chest again, with more meticulous organization than I’ve yet seen him use anywhere on the ship. There are other toys as well, stowed alongside them, ones less immediately suited for my use - yet my eye catches on one, and an idea crackles to life within me.

“A flogging, is it?” says Chosokabe when I point it out. “I’ve never been much of a man to take one, not for my own pleasure, at least, but if you’ve a mind to see how it feels…?”

It feels churlish to tell him I wish it for the next step of my journey, but he takes it in stride, for all his roughness ever the gentleman. “I’ll lend it to you then. Not like I have to worry _you’d_ make off with it, now do I. But for payment - next you’re back this way, you’ve gotta help me test out the modifications I’m making to these attachments. What we did tonight’s just playing around compared to what these babies’ll do!”

I could scarcely be happier to meet his demand.

***

“Fifty!” roars the Beast as the tails fall over his back.

I’m certain it’s in fact forty-nine; far be it from me to suspect my honored rival of foul play, but my internal clock is never in error, whereas he is almost certainly under some level of intoxication. Nevertheless, he could have no more wish to best me due to an error in his favor than I do to lose in such an ignominious manner.

“Bah! What’s one more stroke either way!” he replies when I correct him. “You can give me another five, if that’ll make you happy. Go ahead, it won’t harm me none!”

In point of fact, I give him one more stroke, enough to bring the count to a fair fifty. I’m sorry to see the experience end, but even my arm is beginning to tire; once again I’m impressed at my rival’s stamina. Lord Chosokabe has done me well; the flogger is a fine tool, perfectly suited for a test of endurance, though as with most things it’s a bit short for me to wield comfortably. Perhaps upon my return I might ask the Regent if he knew where a tool of the proper proportion might be obtained...though of course, he would have no need for weaponry.

The Beast slumps against the wall, his back red and flecked with blood, and my gears click into a faster rhythm as he snarls and pulls himself upright. I should have expected nothing less from a man as absurdly stubborn as he.“Ah, now that’s refreshing!” he bellows. “Just what an old man needs to get himself up in the morning.”

Be that as it may, he should have his wounds tended to - if nothing else, it would be a smirch against my honor if I didn’t see it done. As expected, he tries to throw off my attempts to help him - no doubt he would have claimed the salt water would be balm enough, the reckless old man - but he’s already tired from his exertions, and finally he huffs and allows me to spread salve across his torn back.

“You’re next, you know, lad,” he says as I tend to him. “Never mind all that strongest warrior rubbish, let’s just see if _you_ can take fifty from _my_ arm.”

I would like nothing better than to try, and to see the smugness fall from his face when I endure with effort to spare. So it’s with the sincerest regret that I express my intent to return to Osaka within the day. My journey has been long, and even more fruitful than I could have hoped, but it is not the part of a soldier to travel alone for too long. It is more than time for me to stand beside my young lord once again.

“Ah, so you’re chickenshit,” he replies with a laugh. “Don’t push your luck, boy, my swing’ll only be stronger by the next time you’re down this way.”

He offers me a swig from his sake jug. It would be churlish of me to waste when it will of course have no effect, so as usual, I tactfully decline. And out on the beach the waves lick higher and higher across the golden sand, and the wind starts to turn to the east, a tailwind to bring me home.

“You keep lookin’ out for that boy, now,” Shimazu says as we watch the palm leaves wave in the mounting breeze. “Way things are looking to head these days, he’s gonna need it.”

I hardly need to hear from my rival where my duty lies. But his confidence I treasure all the same.

***

When I return to Osaka castle, it’s to news that Lord Takechiyo has been confined to his rooms. I find him sitting on his futon, curled around a sprained wrist, and glaring down at his loose fist. Well, it’s hardly the worst trouble he’s gotten into in my absence.

“You don’t need to worry, Tadakatsu,” he says as I check the wrappings. “It’s just Mi-- just a fight I got into with one of the page boys.” He sighs, and his sullen expression lifts into a new sunny smile. “Anyway, Tadakatsu, tell me about your journey. You must have met lots of interesting people on the way.”

It’s strange, seeing him start to grow up.

I don’t tell him everything. In truth, I tell him very little of the most valuable parts of the experience - there are some matters that a gentleman keeps private even from one’s lord, at least among such personal intimacies as those with which I have been trusted. But there’s still much I can tell him of the lands I travelled through and the men and women I was privileged to become close to, and by the time I’m done he’s curled on the futon blinking sleep from his eyes, the expression on his face much closer to the Lord Takechiyo I know.

“You must be really nice, to make all those valuable friends,” he says. “I wish I could do it so easily.”

It’s hardly easy, even with all the reward I find in it. But it is an effort I apply myself to with joy, and I’m sure that he will feel no differently when he is grown.

With Lord Takechiyo I can never quite hide the amusement in my speech. “But I can’t wait _that_ long,” he pouts. “Tadakatsu, won’t you show me how you always form such bonds?”

I have to give thanks for my inability to blush, and even more so for the fact that my lord is too tired to press the issue. Oh yes, Lord Takechiyo will yet learn the power of bonds, as well as any man ever might. But as for myself, there can be no higher bond than simply to stand by his side.


End file.
